Photographer's Note

About a month ago, Jonathan Wilson (jbweasle) posted a beautiful photograph of jellyfish taken at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. In my critique I said that I wasn’t sure whether it met TrekEarth’s Terms of Service (ToS), but it attracted a lot of positive comments, so made me think about posting this one from the aquarium on Singapore’s Sentosa Island.

Before posting my contribution I checked the ToS and discovered that Adam has edited the terms since I last looked at them, now only restricting photographs of family, friends, pets, infrared images, studio photographs and shots of common objects (like close-ups of garden plants, water droplets, toothbrushes, etc.) unless they are accompanied by a suitable note that teaches us about the world (because the purpose of TE is to learn about the world through photography).

So that means photographs of jellyfish in aquariums are now permitted! Thanks Adam. I hope that doesn’t mean we are going to be flooded with aquarium photographs (because I actually find aquariums quite boring places), but it does enable me to share this one image that I do like very much.

As I wasn’t intending to post this on TE when I shot it, I didn’t note down the details of this particular species of jellyfish, so I tried matching it up with photographs on the Internet but got totally confused. In fact after reading this description on the aloha.com website, I am not even sure now that they are jellyfish:

“Jellyfish are any planktonic marine member of a group of invertebrate animals composed of about 200 described species of the class Scyphozoa (phylum Cnidaria) or of the class Cubozoa, which was formerly considered an order of Scyphozoa. The term, jellyfish, is also often used in referring to certain other cnidarians that have a medusoid (saucer- or bell-shaped) body form, such as hydromedusae, the siphonophores (including even the Portuguese man-of-war which technically is not a jellyfish but a pelagic colonial hydroid or hydrozoan), as well as unrelated forms such as salps and comb jellies.”

Maybe I should have titled this ‘Circulating cnidarians’?

I’ve described this as ‘deadly beauty’ because I assume those tentacles pack a nasty sting. They remind me of a box jellyfish commonly known as a ‘sea wasp’ (scientific name Chironex fleckeri) that I often used to see in the ocean when living in tropical Australia (the jellyfish in this photograph are not sea wasps though because the tentacles on sea wasps hang from the outside of the bell shaped body rather than the middle). Even a moderate sting from a sea wasp can cause death within a few minutes and according to the aloha.com website, the mortality rate is about 20% “with death arising from secondary to respiratory paralysis, neuromuscular paralysis drowning, and cardiovascular collapse”.

That is why when you visit tropical areas of Australia in the wet season (November to April) you are advised NEVER to swim in the sea.

Hey David, accompanied by a good note does not mean that you'll have to write a complete thesis about the subject ;-))) (I will have to read it later, as I'm at work, but I think this addition to the ToS is from way back already, so you could have posted this beauty a lot earlier ;-))
Wonderful colours, David, and I must say that I'm not a fan of these creatures, that is jellyfish in general and this one in particular, but behind glass I can simply enjoy them very, very much.
Beautiful capture indeed! And thanks for the long note.

Well David if this jellyfish were your pet then it might not qualify. Ha! I must say the deep blue background really sets this jelly fish up for a wonderful photo..which I might add is very nicely balanced too. Good work David and thanks for showing this dangerous creature!

Hi David,
I didn't know about the "3000 character limit on the notes", but I guess that you must already found that, hehehe.
I remember the ones from Jonathan, that I really loved and these are "deadly beautiful", as well. It seems that are performing some kind of a dance, in order to hipnotyse the victim ;-)) I love it!
This remind me that you could also visit the Oceanographic in Lisbon (at the Expo 98 area, not so far from Orient Station, from Calatrava).
Cheers,
Ricardo
p.s.- I don't have acess to my email at the office, right now and I'm just leaving to Alentejo, for a week...so, see you when I´ll return.

Hi David,
It's a fascinating one. They seem to swim in circle where one decided apart. I wonder if they have specially planned the lighting to make this so attractive.
I'm not aware of former versions of ToS, but how could this have ever been against any? Aquariums are about learning about the (underwater) world.
Because of that they never could be boring to me either.
Kari

Hi David - 5 star note as usual, and the creature is infinitely more interesting than a toothbrush, the orange and navy combination is very appealing, I wish we had known for sure that this is one of those infamous box jellyfish, and not something often found on the menu in that part of the world.